Starpoint submits APPR plan to state

The Starpoint Central School District called a special meeting Monday so board of education members could learn about and approve their Annual Professional Performance Review plan that will be submitted to New York state.

As part of the Race to the Top innovative, all districts in the state have to submit a plan on how their teachers and principals will be evaluated. Each district may come up with their own way to do so, but the plan must be first be approved by the state and in place by January.

Director of instruction, assessment and staff development Sean Croft spoke about the decisions Starpoint made with their APPR. Teachers and principals will be evaluated on a 100-point scale.

Sixty percent of the teacher’s score will be based on what is happening in the classroom and a rubric. As part of the rubric, Croft said they decided to do something a little different than other districts in the state.

Teachers will be evaluated in several categories as being highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective. Starpoint decided to score if a teacher is highly effective or effective, they would get two points, if they are developing they would get one point and ineffective would get zero points.

Croft was hopeful that the state would not find this plan as “overly generous,” rating highly effective and effective the same.

“We believe teachers should be living in effective and visiting highly effective,” said Croft. “We don’t want them to be penalized for effective, which is still a very, very strong teacher.”

Croft said it was their view that the majority of the points in this category should come from the classroom, making up 40 out of the 60 points.

A teacher will be observed a minimum of 60 minutes with one announced and one unannounced observation. There is a maximum of one announced and four unannounced observations, totaling 140 minutes.

In the student growth category, which makes up 20 out of the 100 points, 15 percent of the teaching staff will be given a state issued growth score.

For the other 85 percent, teachers will have to complete students learning objectives, where they will set goals for their students and at the end of the year take an assessment and a score will be awarded based on goal completion.

In the local category — the other 20 percent of the 100-point total — the district will use the Starpoint Performance Index, which is found on report cards.

This index produces a score out of 200. They will use that statics and divide by 10, giving them a number out of 20.

This would limit additional testing, as other districts in the state are choosing to do.

“We did not want to give an assessment for the sole purpose of getting a teacher’s score,” he said. “We don’t want to be overly testing students.”

Principals will be evaluated similarly to teachers. The 60 points will come from a board assessment on leadership and management actions. Superintendent C. Douglas Whelan will conduct three school visits, 45-minutes each, with one being unannounced.

For a growth score, three out of the four building principals will receive a score directly from the state. The fourth principal will have to set goals and be given a score based on how many completed it.

For the local score, just like teachers, they will share a final score based on the Starpoint Performance Index statistic.

“In the end the teachers and the principals have come together and say we have a quality plan and hopefully the state will agree with us,” said Croft.

As part of Race To The Top, Starpoint received a total of $56,000. Orleans/Niagara BOCES received $42,000 of that, meaning Starpoint receives an annual payment of $3,500 a year, over four years. The state was awarded $700 million for the initiative.